JSGS Public Lecture – Research, Data, & Indigenous Ways of Knowing

Presented by Chadwick Cowie, Ph.D Candidate, Political Science, University of Alberta, Michi-Saagiig Nishnaabeg Researcher, Michi-Saagiig Nation & incoming Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto-Scarborough

Throughout Canada’s history, as well as during British and French encroachment on to the 50+ nations and confederacies that call Turtle Island home, western forms of research and ways of knowing have been utilized to dictate, control, and put forth differing myths in relation to not only Indigenous nations but their ways of knowing and understanding the world around them. This Lecture will seek to deconstruct this issue and bring forth understanding of what can occur when Indigenous ways of knowing are fully and equally included.

About our speaker:  Chadwick (Chad) Cowie is from the Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg community of Pamitaashkodeyong (also known as Hiawatha First Nation). He is a part of the atik (caribou) dodem. Currently, Chad is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta; Chad’s research focuses on whether or not Indigenous peoples participating in Canada’s federal electoral process can bring forth change, decolonization, and reconciliation. Alongside Chad’s research, he is currently assisting the six Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg communities with research regarding their historical and contemporary existence not only as individual communities but also as the Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg nation as a whole. Alongside research in the Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg Nation and Indigenous electoral participation, Chad also enjoys research in federalism, Indigenous governance, Settler-Indigenous relations, as well as Settler Provincial-Indigenous relations.